Wednesday, April 26, 2017

April 26, 2017 (112UA) A handful of Kyiv
residents came to pay tribute to those who deceased during the Chornobyl
nuclear disaster, which occurred on April 26, 1986. Among the present were
liquidators of the disaster and their relatives. At 1.23 a.m., the exact time
when the explosion on the 4th unit of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant
thundered, the church bell rang 31 times, as in 31 years since the catastrophe
took place.

Chernobyl's official photographer Anatoly Rasskazov took this photograph in the
first hours after the deadly explosion. A highly radioactive vapour trail is
seen coming from the heart of the destroyed reactor. Rasskazov dot 300 Roentgen
(fatal is 500 Roentgen) while taking photos of the plant. He died of cancer in
2010.

People laid flowers to the memorial of the liquidators of the
Chornobyl disaster. Leaders of Ukraine and Belarus will jointly participate in
the events dedicated to the anniversary of the tragedy. On April, 26,
Ukrainians, Belorussians, Russians and several other nations remember those who
gave their lives due to the Chornobyl nuclear disaster. It is known and widely
referred to as the largest man-made catastrophe in the entire history. The tragedy
took place at the Chornobyl nuclear power plant, near Prypiat’ city, Kyiv
region on April 26, 1986.

The nearby town of Priryat is still
abandoned throgh, due to high level of radiation. Some parts of Chernobyl will not be
radiation-free for at least 24000 years because of substances such as Plutonium
139.

Friday, April 14, 2017

April 14, 2017 (KyivPost) This year the Orthodox
Christians, who are the majority in Ukraine, celebrate Easter on the same day
with Protestants and Catholics. Monday,
April 17 is a public holiday. The Easter traditions are quite different in Ukraine and in
the West. This quiz will help determine how well one knows Ukrainian traditions
of celebration. When done, don’t forget to share the results and challenge
others to take the quiz.

Thursday, April 13, 2017

April 13, 2017 (Dailymail) Secretary
of State Rex Tillerson is leaving Moscow empty-handed following two hours of
frosty talks with Vladimir Putin -
without even a snapshot with the Russian president to show for it. Instead he
got a public lecture on America's past actions in the Middle East from Putin's
foreign minister, and reminded of Sean Spicer's Hitler gaffe by a Russian
reporter. And he could not even get agreement that Bashar al-Assad's used
chemical weapons, with the Kremlin insisting that the Syrian dictator did not gas his own
people and the Trump official asserting that he did.

FROSTY START: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov
welcomes US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson before their meeting in Moscow

At a joint news conference after the
meeting Putin's foreign minister demanded evidence of the assault - and ofRussian's meddling in the American
election - as he reminded the world of the United States' rocky record with
regime changes, using Iraq and Libya as examples. The deepening split between
the Trump administration and the government the Republican politician had been
accused of colluding with to win his election was on full display Wednesday as
the diplomats made a host of conflicting claims about current affairs. Tillerson
frankly told reporters that US-Russia relations were at a 'low point' while he
issued a Cold War-style warning that the nuclear powers could not have have a bitter
relationship.

Tuesday, April 11, 2017

April 9, 2017 (The Sun) Nick Mead,
55, discovered the five gold bars in the Russian T54/69 while restoring it to
add to his collection of 150 military vehicles. He and mechanic Todd
Chamberlain were filming themselves prising open the diesel tank in case they
found munitions and needed to show it to bomb disposal crews. Instead, they
pulled out the bars, weighing up to 12lb - 5kg - apiece. Todd, 50, said a quick
calculation suggested they were worth in excess of £2million. He added: “We
didn’t know what to do. You can’t exactly take five gold bullion bars down to
Cash Converters without questions being asked, so we called the police.” Nick
runs Tanks-a-Lot, giving petrolheads the chance to drive any of his tanks on
his farm in Helmdon, Northants. He traded in an Army lorry and an Abbot
self-propelled gun for the T54/69 in a deal worth about £30,000 after seeing it
advertised on eBay. Todd and Nick had already found machine gun ammunition
while stripping down the tank and were worried they would find guns. The tank
restorers believe the gold was looted by Iraqi soldiers in Kuwait during
the Gulf War.

Nick Mead, left was shocked to discover a gold bullion worth £2million in the fuel tank of a tank he was restoring

Thursday, April 6, 2017

April 6,
2017 (European Parliament News) Ukrainian citizens will be exempted from EU
short-stay visa requirements, after Parliament endorsed an informal deal with
the Council on Thursday. Under the new law, Ukrainians who hold a biometric
passport will be able to enter the EU without a visa for 90 days in any 180-day
period, for tourism, to visit relatives or friends, or for business purposes,
but not to work.

The exemption applies to all EU countries, except Ireland and
the UK, plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. “Ukraine has
achieved all the benchmarks, so the visa requirement should be lifted”, noted
rapporteur for the proposal Mariya Gabriel (EPP, BG), adding that the visa
waiver will be “another very strong message that Ukraine is a key partner for
the European Union in the Eastern Partnership”. The legislation, approved by
521 votes to 75 with 36 abstentions, still needs to be formally adopted by the
Council of Ministers. It is likely to enter into force in June, 20 days
after it is published in the EU Official Journal.

Monday, April 3, 2017

April 3, 2017 (Thegardian) At least 10 people
have been killed after a suspected bomb detonated on a metro train in St Petersburg. The blast
occurred at the Sennaya Ploshchad station, in the centre of Russia’s second
city, at about 2.30pm (11.30am GMT), reportedly as the train was pulling out of
the station. Andrei Kibitov, spokesman for the St Petersburg governor, told Russian
television that 10 people had been killed and 50 injured. Hours later a second
device at another metro station was found and made safe, Russia’s
national anti-terrorist committee said in a statement.

The news agency Interfax quoted law enforcement
sources claiming the blast was caused by explosive material placed in the
carriage. Photographs from the scene showed a metro train in the station with
one set of doors blown out, and a number of people on the ground with injuries.
Eyewitnesses said people had to exit the carriage through the windows as the
doors did not work. Hundreds of people waited outside the station entrance at
street level, along with fire engines and police vehicles. The whole of the
city’s metro system was closed in the aftermath of the blast, and a number of
streets at ground level were also shut off, as medical helicopters landed at
the scene to evacuate the injured. Russian president Vladimir Putin is in St Petersburg, where he
spoke at a forum earlier in the day. About an hour after the blast, Putin
expressed his condolences to families of the victims before a meeting with the Belarus
president, Alexander Lukashenko. He said it was “too early to say” what caused
the blast but that it could be “criminal or terrorist”. Putin said he
had already spoken with the director of the FSB security services and other law
enforcement agencies.

The British foreign secretary,
Boris Johnson, said he was horrified by news of the explosion. “My sympathies are with the victims
and their families,” he tweeted. For many years, Russia
suffered frequent terror attacks from Islamist groups based in the North
Caucasus, including blasts on the Moscow
metro in 2010. However, since a suicide bomber struck at Domodedovo
airport in January 2011, attacks have largely been confined to the North Caucasus itself.

Since Russia
entered the war in Syria,
a number of Islamic State propaganda outlets have said the country would be a
target. However, there was no immediate claim of responsibility for the
explosion.